THREE STAGES OF A COMPOSER
gramme of an individualistic composer’s music is being heard in Auckland, where 1YC ina series of Monday night broadcasts is playing all the recorded works of Mahler. Listeners so far have heard his First, Second and Fourth Symphonies and future programmes will include his Fifth and Ninth Symphonies, his three song cycles (The Songs of a Waytarer, Songs on the Death of Infants, and The Song of the Earth), and his recorded vocal music. COMPREHENSIVE pro-
Mahler’s early .symphonies showed his interest ‘in the manifestations + of nature. From this he developed an interest in vaster problems-the soul of man and its relation to the world of nature, which had occupied him™ in earlier years. His Fifth Symphony is typical of this second period, and the full effect of his change in outlook is observable. This symphony is disjointed in form and unsettled in matter, and while the orchestra is not so large as that called for by his Second Symphony, the demands made on it are greater. In his later years, however, Mahler reached comparative spiritual calm_ and this is reflected in the last symphony he wrote-the Ninth. It demands a typically large orchestra, but the individualities of each instrument receive more careful attention. The thought is clearer and directed with more certainty, and there are some moments of delicate scoring. The slow movement which ends the work shows great bretdth and a fine command of the strings. Into this period, too, falls his Song of the Earth, which is in effect another symphony for orchestra and solo voices. In this work Mahler shows a nice sensitivity to the underlying philosophy of these Chinese poems, and the scoring has ‘often an almost Latin delicacy. The sessions all start at 8.0 p.m. Those yet to be heard are: March 21: Fifth Symphony. March 28: Ninth Symphony. April 4: Songs of a. Wayfarer. April 11: Songs on the. Death of Infants. April 18: Song of the Earth. April 25: Vocal Music,
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 17
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334THREE STAGES OF A COMPOSER New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 508, 18 March 1949, Page 17
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